The Voyager

Τα avatar, εικονικοί χαρακτήρες σε ψηφιακούς κόσμους, θα μπορούν στο μέλλον να εργάζονται και ως διερμηνείς της νοηματικής γλώσσας, χάρη σε λογισμικό που αναπτύσσει η IBM. Στο μεταξύ, μια άλλη αμερικανική εταιρεία προσπαθεί να τα εφοδιάσει με τεχνητή νοημοσύνη. Οι ερευνητές της εταιρείας Novamente ανέπτυξαν μια «μηχανή νόησης» (cognition machine) που «σκέφτεται» και ελέγχει τη συμπεριφορά των εικονικών χαρακτήρων.

Όπως αναφέρει το BBC, η τεχνολογία αναμένεται να δώσει αρχικά avatar-κατοικίδια ζώα, τα οποία μαθαίνουν από την εμπειρία, ενώ αργότερα θα ακολουθήσουν πιο πολύπλοκοι χαρακτήρες. «Θα ήθελα να πραγματικά δημιουργήσω εικονικούς ομιλούντες παπαγάλους και στη συνέχεια εικονικά μωρά» δηλώνει ο Δρ Μπεν Γκέρτσελ, ιδρυτής της Novamente. Οι δημιουργίες του αναμένεται να εμφανιστούν σε εικονικούς κόσμους όπως το δημοφιλές Second Life.

Διαβάστε το άρθρο.

Technorati Tags: Avatar, Cognition, Avatars, Cognition Machine, Second Life, Novamente, IBM

Information Architects Japane created the Web Trend Map for 2007.

The 200 most successful websites on the web, ordered by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective.

Visit the clickable edition (which is a good idea for a start page), learn more about the the Web Trend Map or download it below to use it as a wallpaper or as a screensaver, unfortunately only for the OSX users.. (more…)

[youtube QOFTQpNhsWE]

Technorati Tags: Internet, Porn, Video, Youtube, Porn Search,

The Digg effect on a WordPress site. Includes stats. We’ve all seen Wordperss sites crumble under the digg effect, see how this one stayed online.

Technorati Tags: Digg, Digg Effect, WordPress, Wp, Blog, Stats, Online

According to the email that Yahoo! sent a few minutes ago, Yahoo! Photos is closing on Thursday, September 20, 2007, at 9 p.m. Until then users will have the opportunity to move their photos to another photo sharing service.
Read below to learn more..

Dear Yahoo! Photos user,
For some time now, we’ve supported two great photo sharing services: Yahoo! Photos and Flickr. But even good things come to an end, and we’ve decided to close Yahoo! Photos to focus all our efforts on Flickr — the award-winning photo sharing community that TIME Magazine has called “completely addictive.”

We will officially close Yahoo! Photos on Thursday, September 20, 2007, at 9 p.m. PDT. Until then, we are offering you the opportunity to move to another photo sharing service (Flickr, KODAK Gallery, Shutterfly, Snapfish, or Photobucket). We’re making the transfer real simple, and with a couple clicks we’ll automatically move your photos to Flickr or wherever you want them. You can also download your original-resolution photos back to your computer, or buy an archive CD from our featured partner (for users of the New Yahoo! Photos only). All you need to do is tell us what to do with your photos before we close, after which any photos remaining on Yahoo! Photos will be deleted and no longer accessible.

Of course, we hope you’ll join us at Flickr (you can even use your Yahoo! ID), but we also realize that Flickr may not be for everyone. In the end, we want you to find the service that’s right for you, and we hope you take some time to learn more about your options before making this important decision.

Please give us your decision by Thursday, September 20, 2007, at 9 p.m. PDT. After that time, any photos remaining in Yahoo! Photos will be deleted. Click here to make your decision, or review a list of our frequently asked questions.

Thanks for being a part of the Web’s largest photo sharing service — we hope to see you over at Flickr!

If you have already moved or downloaded your photos, please disregard this message.
The Yahoo! Photos team

Technorati Tags: Yahoo, Yahoo!, Yahoo! Photos, Yahoo Photos, Septemper 20, Flick, photo sharing service, Photos, Photo Services

Is blogging a good way to make money? It might surprise you, it might even disappoint you, but I don’t recommend it.A friend is looking to make some money fast. His business is slow and needs to make up the shortfall. He asked about blogging, and I told him that wasn’t the answer. I suggested he get a job instead. Me. A blogging advocate.

OK, here comes the clarification. It depends on how much you need to make and how soon.

• Can you make a good income from blogging? Yes, it is possible.
• Can you make good money fast? Highly unlikely.
• Do most people make a good income from blogging? No, I don’t think so.

Technorati Tags: Make money, Money, Blogs, Blogging

Matt is writing:

People trying to visit WordPress.com from Turkey are seeing this message: “Access to this site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2007/195 of T.C. Fatih 2.Civil Court of First Instance.” I didn’t realize Turkey had a great firewall like China. This is really unfortunate because we have a really passionate Turkish community that gets about 12 million pageviews a month. Any good tips for people to get around the block?

I never heard that bans like that were happening in Turkey, although I read somewhere that Youtube was banned inTurkey for a few days as well.

For the moment the best tip for them would be the use of a free proxy server although it’s never the best solution.

Let’s hope that this will be something temporary and bloggers from Turkey will be free to use WordPress.com soon…

Technorati Tags: Censorship, great firewall, turkey, wordpress.com, wp, wordpress, free proxy

84%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

I’m not sure if the percentage above is good for me or not.. but if you run a blog give it a try and let’s discuss the results.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Blogs, Addiction, Addicted

Scrollovers are a way to quickly and easily add flare to your web pages, giving your users an experience they weren’t expecting.
Integration of Scrollovers into your web site couldn’t be easier, even if you’ve already built the site that you want to include Scrollovers on.
In just minutes you will be able to have them appearing on your own pages

read more | digg story

Free online video converter. Convert and download videos from youtube, Google Video or directly from .FLV file. Play it on your PC, Mobile, iPod, PSP and enjoy!
How to use
1. Copy the link of the page with the video on it and paste it in the textbox.
2. Choose desired format : AVI, MOV, MP4, 3GP, MP3.
3. Click Convert button.
4. Download the converted file.